Brighter Communities Worldwide are delighted to have been selected as finalists for the Charities Institute Ireland Awards, under the category of Best Supporter Experience.
This award honours organisations that make exceptional supporter care and experience a top priority and recognises best-practice in supporter experiences. These experiences are designed to bring supporters and beneficiaries closer together, and to demonstrate the impact and outcomes of the organisation’s programmes.
Brighter Communities Worldwide has been nominated in this category for our overseas Harambee volunteering programme where supporters are invited to deepen their engagement with communities on the ground in Kenya. During this programme, our volunteers spend time in Kenya, and work together with our team of local staff and volunteers in the delivery of our community development programmes. This brings a powerful boost to our work as they share their skills, time, energy, life experience and knowledge. Harambee is a Swahili word meaning ‘working together’. 
As an organisation, we strive to actively encourage and facilitate our volunteers to question their roles and responsibilities as global citizens. We shine a light on the inequalities of the world we live in and we aim to raise awareness with our supporters, donors, volunteers and community members on the impact of these inequalities. Through pre-departure training, we make space for volunteers to practice critical thinking by exploring topics on cultural awareness, ethical communications and sustainable development, using participatory methods that encourage questioning and exploration. During the project we make space for the team to pause and consider the experience, and arrange a team debrief upon return home, to check in and explore next steps. All of this serves to deepen our supporter’s engagement with Brighter Communities Worldwide, and with their identity as global citizens.
The success of the 2023 Harambee can be measured in the amount of funds raised but beyond that it is measured in the impact it has on the lives of the people involved – the volunteers themselves, the local Kenyan volunteers, the staff and the people in the community who cross paths with the volunteers during the project.
Here are words shared from members of the 2023 Harambee team describing their time in Kenya.
- “The most incredible life experience, a real insight into life in Kenya – it’s welcome, warmth, people, landscape, challenges and opportunity for growth. A hard place to leave”.
- “An amazing cross-cultural experience .. a real opportunity to see community development in action and stretch yourself in many ways – learning so much on the journey”.
- “I learned a lot from the Kenyan people I met and worked with and I really enjoyed my experience”.
- One word to describe the experience – ‘Life changing’, ‘Humbling’, ‘Incredible’, ‘Awesome’
We are very proud to be finalists for this award, and would like to thank all of our Harambee volunteers, past and present, for their commitment to community development, and to continuously improving our supporter experiences.
